


What Happens in Room 404

by letters_of_stars



Category: Free!
Genre: Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Romantic Fluff, Sharing a Bed, and silly tourist-y things, but really gently implied, hints of future fish au, idk what's the opposite of slow burn?, these tags are a mess, two strangers take a day and a half to realize they maybe actually already love each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-23 02:06:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17071424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letters_of_stars/pseuds/letters_of_stars
Summary: The last thing Rei needs after a fourteen hour flight is a stranger sitting in his hotel room eating instant noodles. The last thing he expects is to accidentally fall for him.





	What Happens in Room 404

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Reigisa Creative Works Exchange 2018, using the suggested prompt of double booking a hotel room with assorted hijinks. So thank you anonymous prompter! I hope you find and enjoy this story!

Fourteen hours. Fourteen hours and then forty-five minutes trying to get his luggage back and then an extra hour and a half in heavy traffic repeating the hotel name again and again to the cabbie, and then ten minutes at the front desk with the poor girl completely overwhelmed trying to make key cards fast enough for the influx of guests, and then finally Rei has his card in hand and his luggage dragging behind him, into the elevator, up four stories, turn left, here it is, room 404. The light blinks green when he inserts his card in the slot, and Rei nearly collapses inside. His eyes are already fighting to close as he drops his suitcase and sheds his suit jacket, and then he flops onto the bed with a contented sigh. He’s never getting up again. 

“Um,” says a voice by the window, and Rei nearly knocks himself out against the wall with how fast he leaps upright. There’s a stranger sitting cross legged on the chair, forkful of instant noodles held halfway up to his mouth. “You’re probably not room service, huh?” the man adds in fluent English, and puts the noodles in his mouth. He chews and swallows while Rei tries to get his heartbeat back down out of the danger zone. “I’m Nagisa.” 

Oh thank God he brushed up on his English over the past few weeks. “You’re in my room,” Rei says, almost hopefully, like the stranger will realize his mistake and leave so Rei can sleep. But the stranger—Nagisa—just reaches for the little key card envelope on the side table nearest his chair. He flips it open and points to the 404 written inside.

“I reserved this room a few weeks ago.” 

Rei groans and sits on the edge of the bed. He’s so tired. So so tired. “I thought my travel agency...we must have been…” Damn it, what was the word? “Booked...double booked. I’ll go tell the front desk and they can put me in a new room. Sorry to bother you.” 

Nagisa nods and waves a little before Rei disappears back out the door. Once in the elevator, Rei realizes he probably should have brought his luggage with him, but oh well. The important thing is exchanging his key card for an empty room this time around. The girl at the front desk seems a little less frantic when Rei gets there and only has one other person in line ahead of him. She smiles wearily when Rei steps up. “Is there a problem with your room sir?” 

“There’s a person in it,” Rei tells her, and hands his card across. “I think we got double booked. Is there another room available?” 

The girl frowns. “I’m not sure…” She clicks about on the computer in front of her. “There’s a big convention going on and we’ve had to turn down a lot of calls…” 

Rei rubs a hand down his face and winces as he feels the stubble. “Any rooms? I’ll take anything.”

She shakes her head. “No sir, I’m sorry, we…” 

Rei tries not to sigh too loudly. It’s not her fault. This is karma. They’d offered to put him in some swanky suite right downtown, but Rei had been stubborn and insisted on finding his own way. Sort of funny he should suffer karmic consequences for not wanting to waste money on little pillow chocolates he didn’t need, but here he was. “Alright, I guess I’ll...go get my things and find somewhere else.” Maybe that suite was still waiting for him. Maybe he’ll call Ellen. Or not. He doesn’t want to bother her when she has so much going on already.

A queue is beginning to form behind him, so Rei smiles wearily at the girl as she babbles about a full refund and waves before heading back to the elevator. Right back to room 404. 

Nagisa has finished his noodles and is sitting in the chair with his nose buried in a New York City guidebook when Rei returns. He glances up at the thud of the door. “Any luck?” 

“No.” Rei stares despairingly at his luggage. “No more rooms. I’ll go find a hotel somewhere else.” He leans down to grab his suitcase handle, but Nagisa tosses aside the guidebook, leaps across the room, and yanks the suitcase the other way so Rei’s fingers close around air. 

“You’re exhausted!” he reprimands. “I’m not allowing you to leave. You’ll fall asleep on the nearest street bench!” 

Rei straightens and pushes his glasses into his hair so he can rub at his eyes. Did this relative stranger just give him an order?  _ And  _ steal his suitcase? 

“I’m not…” he begins, and groans. Nagisa. That’s not an American name. It sounds vaguely familiar too, but he can’t remember why. A girl’s name on a man, just like Rei himself. “Can you speak Japanese?” he asks. 

He can’t make out Nagisa’s expression without his glasses, but the blob of yellow and pink jumps up and down a little. “Yes! Yes! Good! I thought you were Japanese, but then I thought I better not...what is it? Racially profile? No, that’s not it, but I thought I better not racially profile my own race…” 

“You definitely don’t mean racially profile,” Rei says, slipping back into Japanese with no small amount of relief.

“No, I know, I know I don’t, but I can’t think of the right word for it!” Nagisa swaps languages halfway through, and then seesaws between English and Japanese for a few words. “Assume? Would it just be assume? I guess so, huh? Well, I didn’t want to assume anything, that’s all. And I can’t let you go back out there. Look, it’s getting dark!” He points out the window. “You don’t want to be wandering around looking for a place to stay!” 

The lights from the buildings outside make it sort of hard to tell through the windows, but when Rei pushes his glasses back down and glances at the clock, it actually is getting sort of late. As if on cue, his stomach grumbles. Apparently that fruit tray on the plane hadn’t been enough. 

“ _ I’ll _ go find a different hotel, and you stay here,” Nagisa declares, and lets go of Rei’s suitcase so he can snatch a single loaded backpack up from the floor and swing it onto his back with an audible ‘thunk’. “That’s a better plan.” 

But Rei grabs his wrist when Nagisa tries to slip past him. “No, that’s not better,” he snaps. “You were here first, and if this place is sold out, all the other places are probably sold out. It’s a huge international convention, after all!” 

Nagisa frowns with a stubborn little pout. “Well, I’m not letting you leave.” 

Rei tightens his grip around Nagisa’s wrist. “And I’m not letting  _ you _ leave either.” 

“Fine!” 

“Fine!” 

They glare at each other for a long moment before Rei’s stomach makes itself known again and Nagisa’s face breaks into a smile. He laughs. “Okay, I guess we’re sharing a room, Rei-chan. Want to share a dinner table too?” 

Rei blinks and realizes he should have let go of Nagisa’s wrist about ten seconds ago. He does now, but Nagisa stays close, still smiling. It’s a very nice smile, Rei realizes in his exhausted haze. The smile of someone who is actually willing to split a room with a stranger in New York City. 

“Dinner would be nice,” he hazards, and Nagisa nods before bounding back over to the chair and grabbing a pair of worn-in Chuck Taylors off the floor. He slips them on easily without undoing the laces and then looks around for his backpack for a moment before realization dawns and he drops it from his shoulders. The flannel he pulls from one of the pockets looks just as worn as the shoes, but also comfy. Rei wishes he’d brought something other than his formal clothes and a pair of pajamas. They’ll be an odd pair, him in his suit and Nagisa wearing torn jeans and a red and black flannel fraying at the hem. But Nagisa just smiles again as he pockets his wallet and phone.

“Let’s get some grub.” 

Rei makes sure his key card is in his pocket before heading for the door. And then his brain catches up with the conversation, just as the two of them are heading down the hallway for the elevator. “Wait, Rei- _ chan _ ?”

 

* * *

 

Rei barely remembers dinner. He’s pretty sure Nagisa orders for him and he eats on automatic. He answers the couple of questions Nagisa asks. Yes, he’s here for the convention. No, he’s never been to the States before. One brother, older. No, he doesn’t want dessert. Fine, dessert to go. He really, really,  _ really _ just wants to sleep. 

“You shower, Rei-chan,” Nagisa urges when they get back to the room, and then goes to put their dessert-to-go in the mini fridge. Rei obeys, since it’s easier than having to think for himself at this point. It feels absolutely divine to get rid of the stench of travel and change into his pajamas. Normally he’d be embarrassed by someone seeing that his favorite pjs are purple and covered with butterflies, but Nagisa just smiles when Rei emerges from the bathroom. He’s changed too, Rei realizes, into pajamas of such lurid colors they’re almost more remarkable than the butterflies. Nagisa points at Rei and nods. “Cute!” 

“From my mom,” Rei mumbles, flexing his feet in his fuzzy socks. 

“Cute,” Nagisa repeats and then jumps up from the chair to seize the bathroom for his own. He washes his face and brushes his teeth while humming along to some song that had played in the restaurant. At some point he sticks his head out the door, points at Rei, points at the bed, and gives him a thumbs up. Rei sits very tentatively on the right side of the bed, opposite where Nagisa had stored all his stuff. Well, the only thing left to do is sleep, right? The convention starts tomorrow, but his panel isn’t until the second day, so he’ll be able to sleep in and miss some of it. 

He knows the moment his head hits the pillow he’ll be fast asleep so he waits until Nagisa has bounced back into the main room, still humming. “I...can sleep in the chair,” he offers, and Nagisa gives him...well, it can only really be called ‘a Look’. 

“It’s a king-sized bed, Rei-chan. I think we can share it.” 

That was the answer Rei had really been hoping to hear. He hadn’t been looking forward to sleeping in the chair or the level of guilt he’d feel if Nagisa ended up in the chair instead. He pulls back the sheets and slips underneath into  _ heaven _ . 

“Goodnight Rei-chan,” he hears Nagisa say with a smile clear in his voice, and then Rei is gone, fourteen hours of flight, forty-five minutes of luggage retrieval, and an hour and a half in traffic sliding into a wonderful, restful, dreamless sleep. 

 

* * *

 

He wakes up to a warm little body pressed against his own. For a moment he thinks he’s back in university, sharing a bed with his first (and only) girlfriend, and he circles his arms around her, holding her close. He inhales deeply in the darkness, expecting the scent of her favorite lotion, but instead of vanilla, it’s bubblegum he smells. That alone shocks him into the present moment. Nagisa? 

He slowly reaches for his glasses on the nightside table before realizing he hadn’t remembered to take them off before falling asleep. In fact, they’re putting in a spirited attempt to take out his right eye. Rei adjusts them and turns his head to check the clock. 2:02 am. 

Nagisa mumbles something incoherent and nuzzles his face into Rei’s chest. Which is...simply...oh dear. 

It would be a shame to wake him, after all. Despite his enthusiasm, Nagisa has also been travelling and is certainly tired as well. Rei could simply fall back asleep and leave this problem for Nagisa when he wakes up. It  _ is _ Nagisa on Rei’s side of the bed, after all, and he has the feeling Nagisa won’t feel too ashamed over this. Just a hunch. As long as he thinks Rei never found out.

But there is also...well...Rei doesn’t really mind. There are worse things in life than sharing a bed with an attractive man, even one with no sense of personal space. Which leads to another problem. Rei had been so relieved at getting to sleep in a bed he hadn’t given thought to whether he should tell Nagisa that...that…

Well, how exactly do you tell a stranger you’re about to share a bed with that you’re into men? Or do you have to tell them at all? It wasn’t like Rei was planning on putting the moves on, so why should he have to divulge that very private part of his life? No, this is Nagisa’s awkward situation to deal with and Rei refuses to let it interfere with his good night’s sleep. 

Plus, the bubblegum isn’t a bad smell. 

So Rei remembers to take his glasses off this time and falls back asleep while Nagisa’s arms twine a little tighter around his waist. 

 

* * *

 

The next time he wakes, Nagisa is gone completely. Rei fights down the strange disappointment he feels at that. Wait, had Nagisa’s stay only been for one night? 

No, no, his backpack is still on the floor. And Rei finds a note stuck to the bathroom mirror.  _ Gone sightseeing. BBS.  _

What had Nagisa’s reaction been when he’d woken all cuddled up into Rei? Did he brush it off like Rei had predicted? He’d certainly felt well enough to finish off the dessert they’d stuck in the mini fridge. 

It’s past ten by now and Rei has a few texts and emails about the convention, but his feeling of obligation to attend the first day is quickly melting away. They don’t actually need him until tomorrow anyway and any talks or presentations are going to be on topics he could teach in his sleep. He’s been prepping for this for years, after all. Today he’d just be socializing, but socializing just makes him nervous, and lounging in bed with a good book sounds too good to be true. He hides all the team files deep in his suitcase like that will help him stop thinking about it. Sorry Ellen. He can always claim jet lag if she gets angry. 

He’s still stuck in his collared shirt and dress pants, but Rei manages to walk a block from the hotel by himself to a little cafe for breakfast, since he’d slept past the complimentary meal at the hotel. Nothing the cafe offers seems very substantial, but it all tastes very good. Rei spends a good five minutes eyeing another cinnamon roll before forcing himself out the door. There’s no rule saying he can’t come back tomorrow. 

He’s sitting comfortably up against the headboard with shirtsleeves rolled up when Nagisa returns from his sightseeing trip. If he has any embarrassment about last night, he doesn’t show it. “I brought you a hot dog!” he proclaims, clambering with his knees onto the end of the bed and holding up a bundle of white wrapping. He’s got the same jeans on, though the blue and white flannel is in a little better shape than his last one. He’s got on one of those ‘I ❤ NY’ t-shirts on underneath, which makes Rei smile. And a purple fanny pack. It’s hard to miss the fanny pack. 

“A hot dog?”

“Yup.” Nagisa kicks off his shoes and crawls up the bed, still holding the bundle like a holy offering. “Well, one hot dog and a tofu dog, because I don’t know if you’re vegetarian or not. My friend in Texas is a vegan so, you know...also I didn’t know if you like mustard or ketchup or the green stuff, so I have all that too. And napkins, because they are messy, or at least, I dropped half of mine on the ground. The guy selling them felt bad because he said he could tell I’m a tourist so he gave me another for free which was nice because I heard that New Yorkers are mean but…” 

“Nagisa-kun,” Rei reminds him gently, marking his place and setting the book aside. 

Nagisa actually blushes. “Whoops, yeah, sorry.” He hands over the bundle and Rei sets to unwrapping the hot dog. “I talk a lot when I’m excited. You can tell me to shut up.” 

“I wouldn’t want you to shut up,” Rei says softly. “But you are babbling a little.” He uncovers the tofu dog and its meaty counterpart and smiles. “You said you have ketchup?” 

Nagisa grins and opens the fanny pack. He scoops his hands inside and suddenly it’s raining packets of ketchup and mustard and horseradish. He laughs triumphantly while Rei tries to shield himself. “And they said the fanny pack wouldn’t be useful!” 

Rei glances at Nagisa as he picks up the nearest ketchup packet and tears it open with his teeth. “You are not what I was expecting out of New York.” 

“I aim to surprise,” Nagisa replies smugly. “Ooh, are you not eating the tofu dog? Can I have it?” 

Rei hands the extra bundle over. “You paid for them. Oh!” Where are his manners? “I have some money. Can I pay you back?” 

Nagisa waves that away and settles against the headboard next to Rei. “We’re roomies. Temporarily. What’s a hot dog between temporary roomies?” He grabs some packets of mustard and smothers his tofu dog with yellow. “By the way, aren’t you missing the convention?” One socked foot—he wears mismatched socks, Rei realizes—nudges Rei’s leg. 

Rei shrugs before finishing what’s in his mouth. Hot dogs are a suspicious sort of meat, but he rather likes them. And he’s glad there doesn’t seem to be any awkwardness between them about that whole...sleeping thing. He feels very at peace, which was not an emotion he’d anticipated feeling in New York. Nagisa is a comforting presence and maybe Rei isn’t as angry with his travel agency as he thought. “I don’t really need to be there the whole time,” he admits. “But I can’t miss tomorrow.” 

“What’s tomorrow?” 

“The Mars mission presentation.” 

“Oh. Yeah.” Nagisa glances away and taps his toes together almost nervously. “I heard about that one.” 

Rei sucks some ketchup from his thumb and frowns. “Wait, are you here for the convention too?” 

Nagisa turns back to him and blinks slowly before nodding. “Did I not tell you?” 

“Are you here for work?” Rei asks and Nagisa nods again and then smiles. 

“So we’re both playing hooky then!” 

“I guess we are.” And Rei smiles back because it would be impossible not to. Sitting on this bed next to Nagisa is so much more fun than attending lectures and feeling anxious about tomorrow. 

A socked foot nudges his leg again. “Hey so, I have a plan,” Nagisa tells him in a whisper. “Why don’t we go walk around a bit, do that tourist-y stuff, and then go to dinner at this place I found. It has huge tanks full of live fish, Rei-chan.” He stretches his arms above his head in as large a circle he can go. “Real fish!” 

Nagisa’s eyes really are pretty when he gets excited. And he’d been so warm and soft, pressed up against Rei last night. He’s nodding before his brain has a chance to intervene. It’s not a good idea to get emotionally invested in a stranger Rei will never see again after these few days. But maybe that’s just the sort of wild, irrational thing his friends constantly say he needs to do. 

So he finishes his hot dog, grabs his suit jacket, and follows Nagisa down the hallway, into the elevator, and out the front doors into the city. Nagisa laughs, unrestrained and joyous as he pulls Rei across the street on the last two seconds of the walking symbol, and when their fingers slip together, a little kindling a happiness plants itself in Rei’s stomach. Small, but definitely growing. 

 

* * *

 

Rei had expected playing tourist to mean visiting Times Square and maybe the Statue of Liberty. Instead he learns that it means taking the underground subway—”A real New York subway, Rei-chan!”—which Rei doesn’t really see the point of until they pass City Hall Station. Nagisa reads helpful tidbits from his guide as their train loops past the station slowly and then continues on. “A real New York subway,” Nagisa repeats, sounding only a little smug, and Rei has to admit that was pretty cool. The tilework was beautiful, obviously painstakingly constructed, and the light of day had been especially dazzling through the glass panes above them, looped with iron in the same graceful arcs that were built into the rest of the station. Rei would have loved to stop and take it all in a little slower, but Nagisa has  _ plans _ . He buries his face in his phone and pulls Rei along by the hand as he steers them to their next destination. The way he manages to avoid colliding with other pedestrians is really impressive, almost Tokyo worthy, and Rei just enjoys the walk and the heat of Nagisa’s hand in his. 

It turns out that those who focus on Times Square and the Statue of Liberty miss out on the strangest things, like ancient magic stores, quirky candy shops, and the weirdest little place of Treasures in the Trash that he positively has to drag Nagisa out of. All afternoon Nagisa brings Rei along to places Rei never would have thought to visit himself, makes him smile, makes him laugh, makes him think that this is the real reason he’s here, for one afternoon with this stranger who makes him feel increasingly warm inside, like he’s bottling up happiness for later. It still doesn’t make it easy to get Nagisa out of the trash shop. 

“Don’t you want your fish dinner?” he asks in exasperation as Nagisa sulks a little at not being able to afford an enormous elephant’s head made of recycled tuna cans. That snaps him out of it. Nagisa throws a hand over his heart with a scandalized expression. “It’s a dinner with the fishes, not a fish dinner, Rei-chan! How could you be so heartless to eat fish when they’re watching you? You’re probably eating their friends!” 

“I don’t think the fish would care, Nagisa-kun. After all, what do fish eat? Other fish!” 

Nagisa sighs dramatically. “These are sheltered restaurant fish, Rei-chan. They have no idea the harsh realities of life in the sea.” 

Rei hums and squeezes Nagisa’s hand, just to let him know he heard, and Nagisa turns to him with a grin. “This was a fun afternoon. Thanks for coming with me!” 

“Well, I’m glad I didn’t spend my time sitting inside reading,” Rei admits, and Nagisa squeezes his hand back. 

“We’re not a bad pair, are we Rei-chan?” 

Not, not a bad pair at all. 

It’s a half hour wait list when they get to the restaurant and Rei is prepared to turn around and find somewhere new, but Nagisa just locates a bit of bench they can share and tugs Rei down beside him. Somehow, their hands just end up clasped together once again, and neither one of them does anything to remedy the situation. Nagisa asks Rei about growing up with just one older brother and shares some horror stories about having three older sisters, and then asks Rei about what he did in high school and where he went to university. Track and Tokyo, Rei answers. Nagisa nods enthusiastically. “I could have guessed that. Your muscles are nuts. I swam! And then I came to the States for university. Which meant I had to get really good at English really fast, but people were super nice when I didn’t know the words…” 

He starts to ramble on while Rei tries to hide his instant blush. His muscles are nuts, huh? As in...Nagisa has been studying his muscles? Of course, he knows he’s athletically built but for the words to slip out so casually is disarming. Everything about Nagisa is disarming. Intriguing. Unexpected. It makes Rei regret that he has only one more night booked in their shared room before he heads home for his last few weeks before the new job starts in earnest. Given time, maybe he and Nagisa could have been something more than mere acquaintances. 

Which is a silly and reckless thought that Rei tries to shake from his head as Nagisa’s name is called from the waitlist and they walk around and through the elaborate fish tanks, filled with all manner of fish, until they reach their table. “Ooh, yay, a saltwater tank!” Nagisa enthuses. “Sprite please!” he adds, smiling at the waiter. 

“W-water!” Rei stumbles over the English word. He’d gotten so used to talking to Nagisa in Japanese all day. Nagisa catches it, of course, because he’s weirdly perceptive like that. 

“Let’s talk in English all dinner,” he suggests. “So we’re ready for tomorrow.” And then he points to a fish darting through the tank beside them. “Look! A red porgy! And that’s a yellow tang! And a queen angelfish!” He turns in his seat and cranes his head back to stare at the tanks that curve up above their heads. “Hey, a royal gramma! It looks like your pajamas, Rei-chan.” 

Rei tilts his head to watch the little purple and yellow fish glide past. “I guess it does.” He lowers his gaze back down to Nagisa. “How do you know all these? Is that in the guidebook too?” 

Nagisa laughs and kicks Rei lightly beneath the table. “Nah, I’m just into animals.” And he launches back into a running commentary on every single fish that comes their way, through the appetizer, through the (vegetarian) pasta dish they share, and through dessert, which Nagisa has to talk Rei into but is admittedly very chocolatey and delicious. Night has fallen by the time they leave, and Nagisa’s face lights up all over again and he starts to run off down the sidewalk. Rei yelps and manages to catch his hand, but then he’s simply being pulled along as Nagisa oohs and aahs his way past the skyscrapers, all lit up with advertisements and neon. “Houston doesn’t look anything like this!” he laughs breathlessly. “So colorful!” 

It’s not that different from Tokyo, especially when Rei found himself dragged to Akihabara, but with Nagisa’s hand in his and laughter ringing in Rei’s ears, the lights do seem rather magical. Otherworldly. And, because he might never get another chance at this, Rei pulls Nagisa around to face him, cups his chin with gentle fingers, and leans down to kiss him. 

It is disarming. Intriguing. Unexpected. Rei never does anything like this. But Nagisa smiles when they break apart and then stands up on his toes to kiss Rei again, and it’s one of the best decisions, Rei thinks, he has made in his whole life. 

“I don’t normally do stuff like this,” he admits, when they’re back in the hotel room. Nagisa stops kissing his neck and grins up at him, hair mussed from Rei’s hands and lips a swollen pink. 

“Then I will consider myself very very lucky,” he says, and laughs as Rei bears him into the mattress before Rei swallows that laughter down and steals it for himself, happiness blazing fierce inside him. 

 

* * *

 

Nagisa is still asleep while Rei gets ready the next morning. He shuts the door to the bathroom as quietly as he can and gets dressed in the brand new suit he’d brought especially for the convention. His hair refuses to lie flat no matter how vigorously he combs it, so he gives up and lets it floof up the way it always does. He wipes his glasses until not a single smudge can be seen and brushes his teeth. He’s feeling too... _ much _ for breakfast. Nervous for the convention. Still elated from last night. And terribly sad that there will never be another night like it. Because even if they didn’t live fourteen hours away by plane, Rei could never ask Nagisa to wait for him. Even if they’d been dating for years, he wouldn’t ask Nagisa to wait for him. It just wouldn’t be fair. 

He does say goodbye of course, after he’s packed, though he feels bad to wake Nagisa up. He leans over the bed and dots light kisses up along Nagisa’s jaw until Nagisa begins to squirm and then laugh. He turns over onto his back and flings his bare arms around Rei’s neck so he can kiss him proper. He has morning breath, but for once, Rei doesn’t care. “You should get ready,” he mumbles against Nagisa’s lips. “You’ll be late for the convention.” 

“Mmm, can’t I kiss you for five more minutes?” Nagisa wheedles, and finally opens his eyes. “I don’t want to say goodbye,” he admits, and smiles, a smile to accompany the sudden welling of tears in his eyes. “I wish things were different, Rei-chan. That we could have met differently.” 

Rei brushes Nagisa’s hair to the side. “Me too.” 

A couple of tears slide down Nagisa’s face as he sits up and kisses Rei one last time. “I guess we’re another could-have-been.”

A could-have-been, Rei thinks, might be the worst sort of love story of all. But he can’t regret it. Being a could-have-been would always be better than a never-were. He wipes the tears from Nagisa’s cheeks and presses his nose into his hair, into that bubblegum smell. Inhales. Tries to memorize. “I am very, very happy that we were double booked,” he murmurs. “And I am glad to have met you, Nagisa-kun.” He kisses his forehead. “But I do have to go or I’ll be late.” 

“Yeah, of course.” Nagisa nods and gently pushes Rei away. “Maybe I’ll see you at the convention.” 

“Yeah,” Rei agrees, but neither of them sound happy about it. They belong in this room, in subways, in fish restaurants, surrounded by city lights, with each other, not in a convention of hundreds and hundreds of people. Seeing each other there, sad and lonely could-have-beens, would just make Rei feel worse, if that’s even possible at this point. But he’s worked too hard to get here and, like he said, he could never ask Nagisa to wait for him. Nagisa kisses the inside of Rei’s wrist one last time and then Rei is out the door, hauling his suitcase behind him. He turns in his key card at the front desk without waiting to see if he received a refund, and then hails a cab outside to take him to the convention center. And yes, when he gets there it is suits, suits, and more suits. A colleague that Rei barely knows finds him and gets after him for missing yesterday—in a joking nature, Rei hopes—and then helps him find a place to hide his luggage. “Do you really want to fly out tonight?” he asks doubtfully and Rei nods. He’d booked the ticket for tonight, after all. He’s here for his part in the convention and then he’s gone.

His stomach just feels like a dark pit. Rei attends some of the morning lectures and knows he should find them interesting—the cutting edge of science—but he just can’t. He knows half of this stuff already anyway, because scientists are terrible at keeping secrets and most of these people have already published articles on their findings. 

Finally, it’s time for Rei’s part of the convention. He lets himself be swept along with the wave of people heading for the largest auditorium. This is the pièce de résistance, after all. The next great step for mankind.

Ellen nabs him once he’s backstage. Even she’s looking a little rattled. “Where were you?” she hisses, marching Rei through the dark behind the curtain. “Half of my scientists not even showing up for their own convention…” 

Rei decides it’s smarter to just stay silent rather than try to claim jet lag or some other excuse. Ellen plops him down on a stool and tells him to just stay put until it’s time to introduce himself. Rei glances from side to side and can tell there’s other people there in a line stretching from side to side of the massive curtain, probably just as nervous as he is. The sound of the crowd on the other side of the curtain is almost deafening. He can just hear Ellen bawling someone else out down the line. 

And it begins. Ellen does the introduction, naturally, and then several leading scientists at NASA give little speeches. Or big speeches, Rei supposes. Because this is a big deal and he can’t let a could-have-been ruin his moment like this. He’s worked so hard, after all! 

There’s a smattering of applause as the last speech winds down, and then it’s Ellen again. “And now, I would like to introduce you to...the Mars Mission crew!”

The curtain rises and Rei blinks in the sudden light and complete exposure to what’s probably a thousand eyes now fixed on him. 

“Each crew member will introduce themselves and explain their role on the team,” Ellen goes on. “Beginning with team captain, Amelia Aucoin…”

Rei is transfixed by the staring eyes of the crowd as, one by one, members of the team get up and introduce themselves and their role. The captain, the technicians, the botanist, the geologist…he’d studied all their files—still hidden deep in his suitcase—for a brief moment when he’d first received them, though there had been no pictures to put a name to a face. He tries to do so now. Maybe he  _ should _ have come yesterday for that socializing he’d so wanted to avoid so he’d feel a little less like an outsider now. Each person is an expert in their field, naturally, very esteemed. They’re supposed to have a dinner all together with Ellen tonight, but Rei had begged out of it weeks ago. Probably thinking he’d just introduce himself at some other point. Now, missing that dinner will make his feeling of not belonging all the worse, but he brought this upon himself. He should have just sucked it up and come to the convention yesterday, instead of letting himself be thrown off course by a pair of pretty eyes...

“Hey there!” a bright voice chirps from the podium. “I’m Nagisa! Hazuki Nagisa! I’m the team biologist!” 

Rei’s eyes snap to the familiar figure standing on tiptoe to reach the microphone the particularly tall Russian computer scientist had hiked up. Dressed in a suit, but still wearing those scrappy Chuck Taylors.

Oh God, this is not Rei’s life.

Nagisa continues, bouncing up and down a bit on the soles of his feet. “I’ll be checking out the microorganisms we find in the soil, which sounds boring but it’s actually really cool because of what it will reveal about Mars’ past! I’m an extra special expert in marine biology so the remains of any aquatic creatures that once lived there are hopefully preserved somewhere and that would be so cool because—!”” Rei watches Nagisa’s head turn just a little until he can meet Ellen’s eyes, and then he laughs, that bright little laugh that makes Rei’s heart stutter. “I think I just got the cue to stop talking, but I’m really excited to be here and to meet our awesome team!” He sweeps an arm out to indicate the stage, and the audience claps along. 

Rei presses a hand to his forehead and tries to remember. Hazuki. Yes, there  _ had _ been a Hazuki in his files. But...Nagisa had never told him his family name. Neither of them had. And Nagisa hadn’t said anything about being a part of the Mars team! 

But neither had Rei. 

Sweet lord. “I’m just into animals.” That’s what Nagisa had said. 

Rei stands on automatic, though it’s far from his turn and Ellen is probably freaking out, but it’s all worth it for when he reaches the podium and puts his hand in the small of Nagisa’s back. Bold. Unexpected. Everything that Nagisa seems to be able to drag out of him. Nagisa leaps a little in place and then his head jerks up to look at Rei. His mouth drops open. Rei has the presence of mind to cover the microphone with his hand when Nagisa whispers, “Rei-chan?” 

Rei nods, the dark pit in his stomach somehow now a lump in his throat. “Yeah. Me.” 

Nagisa’s eyes widen. “You’re...what’s your name...the other Japanese...Ryu…”

“Ryugazaki,” Rei says with a nod. 

Nagisa looks absolutely scandalized.  _ “You’re _ Ryugazaki-kun?” 

“Apparently we’re both massive idiots,” Rei says with a grin. He doesn’t have much longer before Ellen will implode, so he just leans down to whisper. “Maybe not such a could-have-been?” 

Nagisa beams and squeezes Rei’s hand behind the podium before bouncing back to his seat. Most of the other team members look completely perplexed. Rei shuts his eyes and feels that happiness burn bright inside once more as he uncovers the microphone and leans into it. “Hello, I’m Ryugazaki Rei. I’ll be the astrophysicist for this expedition.” He can’t help a glance backwards to where Nagisa is grinning back at him. He turns again to the audience. “And I think this mission is going to be a _ very _ fascinating one indeed.”

 

* * *

 

Rei lets Ellen talk him into the team dinner after all. And then is easily led astray by the tie behind a pillar where Nagisa practically leaps into his arms before kissing him, again and again, with a ferocity Rei is barely able to keep up with. “Come back to the hotel,” Nagisa whispers, and then whimpers a little because Rei starts kissing down his neck. “I—ah!—still have the room booked for one more night.”

Well, he’s already missed his flight. 

“I can’t believe I didn’t realize you were Hazuki,” Rei grumbles as Nagisa shuts the door to the hotel room behind them. “How did neither of us think to ask each other’s family name?” 

Nagisa laughs a little as he approaches Rei and slips the suit jacket from his shoulders. “To be fair, that’s on you, Rei-chan, because I didn’t remember anybody’s name at all!” 

“Don’t sound so proud of yourself.” Rei shivers as Nagisa rucks his shirt from his pants and begins to undo the buttons, starting from the bottom. 

“I’m not proud, I just can’t memorize names unless I have a face to go with them.” Nagisa undoes the top button on Rei’s shirt and leans in to kiss his chest, lingering and gentle in a way that makes Rei’s spine tingle. “But I’m very glad things happened the way they happened. Or you might have just been Rei-chan the astrophysicist and none of this…” One of his hands drifts down Rei’s back to dip beneath his waistband. “...would have happened at all.” 

Such a little tease. Nagisa yelps when Rei picks him up and tosses him onto the bed. But he’s grinning again when Rei climbs on top of him. 

Later that night, beneath tousled sheets, Nagisa lays his head on Rei’s shoulder, sighs, and then giggles a little. 

“What’s funny?” Rei asks as he draws on arm around Nagisa and pulls him closer. He’s still so warm, even without a stitch on. 

“Oh, just the fact we’re going to be stuck together for at least the next eight years,” Nagisa mumbles, nuzzling his face into Rei’s shoulder. “So I apologize profusely in advance to every anti-fraternization rule I plan on breaking.” 

It’s a wicked little smirk that spreads across his face, one that Rei can’t help but try to kiss away. But he knows his smile is just as wide when he pulls away, tilts their foreheads together, and whispers, “I don’t.” 

His happiness is a flame that fills his whole body, and he doesn’t think it’s going out any time soon. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! You can check out all the other entries for the event [here](http://iwatobies.tumblr.com/tagged/reigisaexchange)!  
> (Also I'd totally be willing to fill in that little nsfw portion missing in the middle if there's any interest, just saying...)


End file.
